Woman survives after cooker handle pierces eye, skull, brain

A woman, admitted to a hospital in Pune after a freak pressure cooker blast that left its seven-inch handle penetrated right through her eye, brain and skull, has survived miraculously and come out of a four-day coma.

Thengil Tarabai, a 40-year-old housewife, was brought to the city's Jehangir Hospital on February 19, with the cooker handle firmly lodged in her head, the lid protruding out of her eye cavity, hospital officials said.

"It was a race against time and the patient was resuscitated in the neuro-ICU, after which she was taken up for emergency Craniotomy, removal of the handle and evacuation of massive blood clots," the officials said.

The surgeons succeeded in removing the blood clots, the cooker handle and repaired the skull bone in a five-hour surgery, although they couldn't do anything about her eye.

"Minute-by-minute, her condition was worsening because of the swelling of brain," said Sachin Gandhi, who led a team of doctors comprising plastic and retinal surgeons, in operating on Tarabai.

"Her eye was damaged beyond repair but she survived the surgery and regained consciousness last night (Feb 23) after four days of continuous monitoring by neurointensivists.

"Now she can open her good eye and move limbs in response to the doctors' commands," officials said.